cut-release

name	cut-release
description	Bump version (semver-computed from what's actually merged), finalize NEWS.md, run the full CRAN-readiness gate, build the tarball, tag and create the GitHub Release. Stops before the actual CRAN upload/email confirmation — that step needs the maintainer. Designed for scheduled one-time invocation.

Cut Release

Takes myIO from "changes staged in NEWS.md as (development version)" to a tagged GitHub Release with a CRAN-ready tarball. Does not run devtools::submit_cran() or upload to cran.r-project.org/submit.html — CRAN's own process requires a human to click an email confirmation link, so full automation stops one step short of that by construction.

Step 1 — Re-derive scope (don't trust a stale snapshot)

• git tag --sort=-v:refname | head -1 — last released tag (e.g. v1.2.0).
• git log {last_tag}..HEAD --oneline --no-merges — everything merged since, including anything backlog-pipeline/idea-scout landed after this skill was written. Read every commit.
• Read current NEWS.md's # myIO (development version) section. Cross-check every commit above against it — if a merged PR isn't reflected in NEWS.md, add an entry for it (match the existing section style: New features / Performance and tooling / etc.) before proceeding. Don't ship a release with undocumented changes.

Step 2 — Determine the version bump

Per docs/versioning-policy.md: Patch = bug fixes/no API change, Minor = new features/backward compatible, Major = removed deprecated APIs or unavoidable breaking changes.

• Default assumption: minor (everything shipped via backlog-pipeline so far has been additive/backward-compatible by design — see feedback_animation_optout and the versioning policy's backward-compatibility guarantee).
• Actually check: grep the NEWS.md entries gathered in Step 1 for anything that removed a deprecated function past its sunset window, changed a default in a breaking way, or otherwise reads as breaking. If found, this is major, not minor — stop and flag it prominently in the output rather than silently picking minor; a wrong major/minor call is a real compatibility break for users pinned to ^1.x.
• Compute the number from current DESCRIPTION Version: (read fresh, don't assume 1.2.0 — more time may have passed than expected).

Step 3 — Update DESCRIPTION and NEWS.md

• DESCRIPTION: bump Version: to the computed number.
• NEWS.md: replace the # myIO (development version) header with # myIO {version} (no date in the header per this project's existing NEWS.md convention — check recent released sections for the exact format and match it).

Step 4 — Run the CRAN-readiness gate

Invoke the cran-submission-expert agent (or run the cran-submit skill's gate checklist directly) covering all 6 gates: metadata, documentation, R CMD check --as-cran, cran-comments.md, package differentiation, final checks. Get a verdict.

• NOT READY: stop here. Do not commit, tag, or create anything. Report exactly which gates failed and why — leave DESCRIPTION/NEWS.md changes uncommitted in the working tree so the next session can see and fix them (don't discard the work, don't ship it broken either).
• READY: continue.

Step 5 — Build, verify, commit, tag, release

1. R CMD build . --no-manual then R CMD check --as-cran on the resulting tarball — confirm 0 errors / 0 warnings, and every NOTE is one already documented in cran-comments.md.
2. Commit DESCRIPTION + NEWS.md directly to main (not a feature branch — this is a release commit, matching how prior releases in this repo were tagged directly on main).
3. git tag -a v{version} -m "Release v{version}" and git push origin main --tags.
4. gh release create v{version} with notes drawn from the finalized NEWS.md section (customer- facing summary), following the format /release already uses.

Step 6 — Stop, hand off the actual submission

Report the release URL and the tarball path. Explicitly state: CRAN submission (devtools::submit_cran() or the web form) and the resulting email confirmation are manual — next action is the maintainer's, not this skill's.

Output

## Cut Release — v{version}

### Scope re-derived
{commits since last tag, any NEWS.md gaps found and filled}

### Version bump
{minor/major, with rationale — flag prominently if major}

### CRAN-readiness gate
{READY / NOT READY, per-gate detail}

### Result
- Tarball: {path}, R CMD check: {0/0/N}
- Tag: v{version}
- GitHub Release: {url}

### Still needs you
CRAN submission (devtools::submit_cran() / cran.r-project.org/submit.html) + the confirmation
email CRAN sends — not automatable, not attempted.